Secure teleconference management

ABSTRACT

A secure teleconference with a patient treatment room may be initiated by receiving, at a central facility, a request for a conference from a clinician application, and then identifying a virtual meeting room and sending an identifier for a conference to the treatment room. The conference is then be established by receiving a call at the central facility from the treatment room, where the call identifies the conference. The central facility then joins the treatment room and the clinician application to the virtual meeting room. Teleconferences may thus be established without reference to sensitive patient information. For security, no incoming conferencing calls may be made to the treatment room directly, and virtual meeting rooms may be eliminated after single use. A call may further be initiated by receiving a request from the treatment room, e.g., which is processed by the central facility to alert one or more clinicians.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 62/537,663 (Vitale, et al.), filed on Jul. 27, 2017, entitled“Secure teleconference management” the contents of which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure pertains to video teleconferencing.

SUMMARY

Secure teleconferencing between a terminal and a remote application maybe facilitated by call management system at a central facility, forexample, which responds to a request for a conference from a remoteapplication or from the terminal. When the central facility is satisfiedby the credentials of the call initiator, a teleconference may beestablished by first sending a call invitation to the terminal, thenreceiving a call at the central facility from the terminal, where thecall identifies the conference. The central facility may then join theterminal and the remote application to a virtual meeting room.

The terminal may be located in a patient treatment room, for example,and the remote application may be a clinician application.

Teleconferences may thus be established without reference to sensitivepatient information, for example. For security, no incoming conferencingcalls may be made to the treatment room directly, and virtual meetingrooms may be eliminated after single use.

A terminal may be adapted in number of ways to facilitate secureteleconferencing. For example, in addition to the security feature ofnot allowing incoming calls, a patient room terminal may be equippedwith infrared equipment for nighttime or low-light observation. Theterminal may be further adapted to allow certain operations for remotecamera control, including, but not limited to, control the rate ofchanges to pan, tilt, or zoom, calibrating field of view, or usinginverse gnomonic transformation to facilitate changes in pan, tilt, andzoom.

Similarly, a central facility or clinician application may be adapted tofacilitate camera operations, such as controlling the rate of changes topan, tilt, or zoom, calibrating field of view, or using inverse gnomonictransformation to facilitate changes in pan, tilt, and zoom. Forexample, user mouse operations may be used to trigger shifts in pan,tilt, and zoom. For example, an input for changing a field of view of acamera may be provided by a user clicking and holding on a position inan image of the current view. The system may use the X, Y coordinateclicked by the use to compute new pan, tilt, and zoom parameters. Forexample, clicking and holding may tri trigger an inverse gnomonictransformation to determine a new field of view and associated pan,tilt, and zoom coordinates. Such operations may be position sensitive,e.g., whereby the system response to clicking in one zone or position inan image has a different effect than does clicking in a different zoneor position. Similarly, camera operations may be enhanced by storingpre-selected views or settings, for example. Camera instructions may besent out of band of the teleconference.

The call management central facility may be arranged to provide foradditionally joining unauthorized parties to the a call, e.g., bypre-arrangement or by request of an authorized clinician on a call, suchthat parties are given access to the virtual meeting room for the callwithout the parties having to provide security credentials to the callmanagement system. This may be used, for example, to invite loved onesof patients or consulting clinicians to join in a teleconference inprocess.

The call management system may start a new virtual meeting room for eachcall or, for example, select a virtual meeting room from a set ofpre-established call resources.

A treatment room terminal, call management system, or clinicianapplication may be connected to a local station, such as a nurse'sstation, or a care management system providing patient care orinformation. For example, a call button associated with a treatment roomterminal may both send a request for a teleconference to the callmanagement system and alert a local nursing station. A clinicianapplication may receive confidential patient medical data from a caremanagement system, while the call management system has no such access.Conversely, the call management system may provide information aboutteleconferences to the care management system so that records of callscan be stored in a patient's medical records.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore,the claimed subject matter is not limited to limitations that solve anyor all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

A more detailed understanding may be had from the following description,given by way of example in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example teleconference terminal.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example teleconference system.

FIG. 3 is a call flow diagram of an example conference call initiated bya terminal.

FIG. 4 is a call flow diagram of an example conference call initiated bya remote authenticated user.

FIG. 5 is a call flow illustrating example methods for the management ofteleconference calls.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example video teleconferencing terminal100. For brevity, herein the system is described in terms of its use inthe context of providing secure teleconferencing to a medical treatmentroom. However, it will be appreciated that the techniques describedherein may be equally applied in other circumstances calling for secureteleconferencing.

Terminal 100 may be used, for example, in a medical treatment room, suchas an intensive care unit or acute care unit, to supportteleconferencing of a remote clinician. Terminal 100 includes a maincomputer 102 which contains various operations and video display unit104. A microphone 114 and speaker 112 are optionally supported by audiofiltering, amplification, and digital/analog conversion circuitry 110.The microphone 114 may be a selective and/or a directional microphone,e.g., adapted to selectively receive input in a speech frequency rangefrom a particular area in the vicinity of the terminal 100. Similarly,the speaker 112 may be chosen to optimize performance in the speechfrequency range.

Terminal 100 includes a camera 108, which is optionally controlled bythe main computer 102, e.g., via pan, tilt, and zoom instructions.Terminal 100 optionally includes an infrared (IR) lamp 106, and a camera108. Camera 108 is optionally sensitive in the IR spectrum, to permit,e.g., nighttime or other low light observation of the vicinity of theterminal 100.

A switch input circuit 116 receives input from a switch, such as amomentary contact button switch, that is located in the treatment room,by which a user in the treatment room indicates a desire to initiate ateleconference. The switch input may be connected directly to the maincomputer 102 or via various communications circuitry to other systems.For example, in parallel to an input of the main computer 102, theswitch input 116 may also be connected to a nurse station in proximityto the terminal 100. The switch input 116 may be connected to an encoder118 which serves to optionally de-bounce the switch signal and/or encodea digital signal comprising an identifier of the switch, and thentransmit the encoded signal to the main computer 102, local nursestation, or via alternative communication circuitry 126 to anothersystem.

The main communication circuitry 120 may include a packet networkinterface, such as an Ethernet modem for wired, optical, or wirelessconnection to one or more IP protocol networks such as a LAN, WAN, orthe Internet.

The components of terminal 100 may use a central power filtering,conditioning, conversion, and regulation circuit 122. A hard resetcircuit 124 may be used to cycle power to reset conditions of operationof the components of terminal 100. The hard reset circuit 124 may betriggered, for example, by: detection of a power brown-out condition orglitch; a signal from the main computer; a local reset switch input; aremote reset switch input; a watchdog timer, e.g., triggered by theabsence of a period signal from the main computer; and/or receipt of anexternal communications packet.

Terminal 100 may be a fixture in a room such as a medical treatmentroom. For example, terminal 100 may include an initial wall mountingplate which is affixed to a wall, and a set of encased modules that arethen affixed to the wall mounting plate. The display 104 may be mountedon a pivot or articulated arm to allow adjustment of the viewing angle,where the pivot or arm is attached to a case or the wall mounting plate.Alternatively, terminal 100 may be mounted in a vehicle, e.g., anambulance, or on a rolling cart.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example teleconference system 101. Aswitch 10 is connected to the terminal 100, and optionally alsoconnected to a local station 150. The local station 150 may be, forexample, a nurse station near the terminal 100. The call managementsystem 200 may be located on a remote server, or implemented, forexample, as a cooperating distributed network of servers. The callmanagement system 200 is used to coordinate and/or host teleconferencingcalls. The call management system 200 is in communication with anauthenticated user 400, and optionally in communication with anunauthenticated user 500.

Optionally, the teleconference system 101 is in communication with acare management system 300 which maintains records such as patienthealth records and medical sensor input data. In the teleconferencesystem 101, the care management system 300 is separate and apart fromthe call management system 200. This permits the teleconference system101 to provide teleconference call service without the terminal 100,call management system 200, authorized user 400, and unauthorized user500 having any potentially sensitive patient information. For example,where the terminal is used in a medical treatment room, the systemsinvolved in the teleconferencing call need not know the identity of thepatient being treated or his condition, for example. For securitypurposes in case of breach or interception, it may be advantageous thatthese systems simply not store any such information, regardless of whatdata may be stored by the local station 150 or care management system300.

FIG. 3 is a call flow of an example teleconference call initiated byterminal 100. The call is initiated by the pressing of the switch 10,which causes a switch signal 1 to be sent to the terminal 100, andoptionally also sent to the local station 150. In this example, thelocal station 150 is alerted, but does not participate in the call. Forinformation purposes, terminal 100 optionally sends an alert 2 of therequest to the care management system 300 and/or local station 150. Inthis example, the care management system 300 does not participate in thecall.

The terminal 100 sends a notice 3 of the request for a teleconference tothe call management system 200. Notice 3 includes an identifier ofterminal 100.

In step 4, the call management system 200 processes the notice 3 and,based on the identifier of terminal 100, selects one or moreauthenticated users to notify. For example, the call management system200 may choose to notify a monitoring clinician, a backup monitoringclinician, and/or an attending physician about the notice 3.

The call management system 200 sends a notice 5 of the request to theauthenticated user 400. In practice, the call management system 200 maysend several such notices. For example, call management system 200 maysend an electronic notification to a session to which the monitoringclinician is logged in, and also send a text message to the backupmonitoring clinician, as well as an email to attending physician. Notice5 may include a reference to the identity of terminal 100.

The authenticated user 400 responds with an affirmation 6 whichindicates an intention to join a teleconference with terminal 100.

In step 7, the call management system 200 selects resources for theteleconference call. For example, the call management system 200 mayidentify system resources and establish a teleconference virtual meetingroom. Alternatively, to expedite initiation of the call, the callmanagement system may select one or more virtual meeting rooms from apool of previously established virtual rooms which have not been usedyet for any teleconference, for example.

In message 8, the call management system 200 informs the terminal 100 ofany details required to join a teleconference, e.g., by providing a URLof a selected virtual meeting room. Similarly, in message 9, the callmanagement system 200 informs the authenticated user of any detailsrequired to join the teleconference. Note that message 8 and message 9may contain different information, e.g., where terminal 100 and theauthenticated user 400 are served by different resources of adistributed network of cooperating servers within the call managementsystem.

In step 10, using information provided by the call management system200, the terminal 100 joins the teleconference. The teleconference maythen be conducted using standard video teleconference protocols, forexample. Terminal 100 may be adapted to join teleconferences only whenthe terminal 100 initiates the connection to a teleconference, such thatno one may ever call into the terminal 100 for a teleconference. Inother words, the terminal 100 may place calls, but will not answercalls. This provides security against unauthorized access, e.g., to thecamera and microphone of the terminal 100. Further the terminal 100 maybe arranged to cause the video display to bear a message indicating whenobservation via the camera is underway.

Similarly, the information contained in message 8 and message 9 may beone-time-only use identifiers, such that only the first provider of suchinformation will be connected to the associated teleconference, thuspreventing improper use of intercepted information. Further, theterminal 100 may authenticate the call management center 200 to guardagainst unauthorized access.

In step 11, the authenticated user 400 joins the teleconference usinginformation provided by the call management system 200.

If optionally permitted, the terminal 100 may request termination of theteleconference by sending a message 12 to the call management system200. This may be achieved, for example, by a second pressing of theswitch 10. Similarly, the authenticated user 400 may request terminationof the teleconference by sending a message 13 to the call managementsystem 14.

In step 14, the call management system 200 determines when to terminatethe teleconference. For example, the call management system 200 maydetermine to terminate the teleconference upon receipt of message 12 ormessage 13, or upon an observation of the loss of connection of one ormore parties to the call, or upon the loss of system resources tosupport the call. To terminate the call, the call management system 200disconnects any remaining parties to the call by, e.g., shutting downthe virtual meeting room to which they are connected. For securityreasons, it may be advantageous to destroy the virtual meeting room upontermination of teleconference, rendering all links to the virtualmeeting room void.

Optionally, in step 14, the call management system may delete referencesto the virtual call room, e.g., such that the information provided inmessage 8 or message 9 cannot be used again, e.g., after improperinterception of message 8 or message 9.

Not shown in FIG. 3, the authenticated user 400 may be permitted to joinan unauthenticated user 500 to a teleconference call. For example, theauthenticated user 400 may forward credentials included in message 9 toanother party, e.g., a family member of a patient in the vicinity ofterminal 100, or a clinical specialist not previously authenticated bythe call management system 200. For example, a family member may jointhrough a web browser on a PC or a mobile device from anywhere.Additionally or alternatively, the authenticated user 400 may requestthat call management system 200 provide the necessary credentials to theunauthenticated party 500.

In message 15, the call management system 200 may optionally report dataregarding the teleconference to the care management system 300. Forexample, message 15 may describe the starting and ending times of thecall or its length, how the call was initiated and terminated, and whoattended the call.

Optionally, the local station 150 or care management system 300 may bepermitted to join the teleconference, e.g., via audio only, or toreceive a feed of the audio or video content thereof.

FIG. 4 is a call flow of an example teleconference initiated by anauthenticated user 400. For example, this method may be used when amonitoring clinician wishes to make an overnight observation of apatient in the vicinity of terminal 100. The authenticated user 400sends a message 21 to the call management system 200, where message 21includes an identifier of terminal 100. In step 22, the call managementsystem 200 verifies that the authenticated user 400 is permitted toinitiate a call with terminal 100. If permitted, in step 23 the callmanagement system 200 then selects system resources for ateleconference. Again, this may include creating a new virtual meetingroom or selecting a room from a pool of pre-established virtual meetingrooms, for example. The call management system then sends messages 24and 25 to the terminal 100 and authenticated user 400, respectively,with information regarding joining a teleconference. Again, theinformation contained in messages 24 and 25 may be unique and distinct.Further, the terminal 100 may authenticate the call management center200 to guard against unauthorized access. In steps 26 and 27, theterminal 100 and authenticated user 400, respectively, are connected toa teleconference using information provided by the call managementsystem. Again, the terminal 100 may be arranged to cause the videodisplay to bear a message indicating when observation via the camera isunderway. The call initiated in FIG. 4 may be terminated, e.g., usingthe methods described in reference to FIG. 3.

Not shown in FIG. 4, the call management system 200 may optionallyinform the care management system 300 of the request 21, decision 22, ordetails regarding any resulting teleconference.

FIG. 5 is a call flow illustrating a number of options for exampleteleconferences. In FIG. 5, entities are depicted in vertical boxes, andtheir interactions are drawn as arrows between the boxes. On the left, aclinician application is shown hosting a user, tech1@xyz.com. Beginningat the top left, the clinician application initiates a teleconference byrequesting a directory lookup by a call policy server for the patientsystem in room 123. The patient system is a teleconference terminal. Thecall policy server, which is part of a call management system, respondsby assigning virtual meeting room VMR456. The meeting room VMR456 may beselected from a pool of ready virtual meeting rooms. The client policyserver informs the conference nodes to create VMR456, or alternativelyalerts the conference nodes that a previously created virtual meetingroom VMR456 is now reserved for a call. The clinician application thencontacts the conference nodes requesting access to VMR456. Theconference nodes verify the permissions of Tech 1 by contacting theclient policy server. The conference nodes then setup the call withclinician application.

The client policy server then instructs the conference nodes to dial outto the room 123 by providing an identifier of the room, 789. That is,the patient system in room 123 is instructed to dial out to the assignedVMR. For security reasons, no dialing into the room is permitted.Further, the patient system may authenticate the call management systemto guard against unauthorized access. The patient system responds tostart the call, and a connection to the teleconference is setup betweenthe conference nodes and the patient system.

During the call, the clinician application issues a command to pan thecamera in room 123. The camera commands are handled out of band of theteleconference. It is received by the call policy server, and forwardedas, e.g., a VISCA command to the pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) function of thecamera of the patient system. The camera subsystem acknowledges thecommand back to the call policy server.

Next, the clinician application requests to add another participant,Doctor 2, to the call. The request is received by the call policyserver, which instructs the conference nodes to invite doctor 2 to theVMR 456 conference call. The conference nodes contact Doctor 2, whoresponds by setting up a connection to the call.

Similarly, the clinician application requests to add anotherparticipant, doctor 3, to the call via a web link. The client policyserver receives the request, and provides web link information forinclusion back to the clinician application. The clinician applicationcompletes an email which it sends to the client policy server. Theclient policy server then sends the email/test to an SMTP address fordoctor 3. Doctor 3 is then able to click on a web link included in theemail/test, and setup a connection to VMR 456 by contacting theconference nodes.

At some point, the clinician application terminates the teleconferenceby sending a request to end the call to the conference nodes. Theconference nodes may then send call termination notices to, e.g., thepatient system, doctor 2, and doctor 3. The conference nodes also informthe call policy server that the call has ended. The call policy serverthen instructs the conference nodes to delete VMR 456.

A user may initiate a change in pan, tilt, and zoom position tohighlight a specific location in a room by, for example, clicking andholding a mouse button when pointing the mouse to a specific location ofa room shown in a teleconference image of the room. This may be achievedwith precision, for example, through the use of gnomonic projectionprinciples. A gnomonic transformation from the current camera positionto the desired camera position may begin with recording the locationindicated by the mouse click and the starting pan, tilt, and zoomposition of the camera at the time of the mouse click. From the currentposition, the current field of view of the camera may be inferred.

Gnomonic projection principles may then be used to determine absolutepan and tilt values of a selected location, and the determined pan andtilt values may then be used for instructing a camera to move from thecurrent field of view to a new view selected. For example, a new viewmay be centered on centered on a point selected by a click on a pixel orsmall region of the current two-dimensional view. Starting with thestarting pan/tilt position of the camera, and the destination (x, y)coordinates from the camera image, a gnomonic projection algorithm maybe used to provide the absolute pan/tilt coordinates that will centerthe camera on those the selected x/y coordinates to enable precise zoomoperation.

Specifically, an inverse gnomonic transformation may be used.Inherently, a traditional camera lens creates a gnomonic projection—aflattened image of the field of view of the camera, where the field ofview is a function of the pan, tilt, and zoom settings at the time theimage is made. Put another way, a standard, rectilinear lens, e.g., asopposed to a pin-hole or fish-eye lens, will produce an image wherestraight features in the observed space are seen as straight lines inthe produced image. The image will be predictably warped according to agnomonic projection pattern. An inverse gnomonic transformation may beused to infer the new pan and tilt settings to center a new image on the(x, y) coordinates selected on a given image. The new pan and tiltsettings may then be sent to the camera.

A variety of methods may be used to determine the zoom setting. Forexample, in providing a click-to-center- and zoom function, the new zoommay be set as a fixed increment higher, a fixed percent higher, or apercentage of remaining zoom capacity higher.

A variety of methods may be used to enhance the user's experience of aclick-to-center- and zoom function. For example, the sequence ofpanning, tilting, and zooming may be selected to avoid disorientation ofthe user. For example, panning and tilting may be set to occur first, sothat the user can observe the movement of the center of the field viewat the current zoom, and then zooming occurs after the image isre-centered. Similarly, the rate of panning, tilting, and zooming may beset to occur at certain rates, e.g., as determined as a function of thecurrent zoom level.

In performing a gnomonic transformation, it may be advantageous to use acalibration in determining an initial field of view. The field of viewis a property of a given camera lens and its zoom level. Thus, theinputs to a gnomic transformation algorithm may include, in addition tothe starting pan/tilt position, the starting zoom level and cameramodel, or calibration data associated therewith. For example, acalibration table may be used to look up the field of view expected fora zoom level for a specific camera or for a model of camera.

Unfortunately, camera manufacturers may not provide sufficientinformation to extrapolate such a calibration table. A camera may havethousands of zoom positions, and a gnomonic transformation may requirean accurate initial field of view input. Therefore, it may be create afield of view calibration table via rigorous physical testing of acamera's actual field of view as a function, for example, of its PTZsettings. A calibration may be stored, for example, as set of suchobserved numerical data.

Alternatively, a calibration table may be stored as a set of polynomialexpressions corresponding to the observed field of view data. Forexample, a polynomial derivation may be conducted on raw field of viewtest data obtained for a camera, and, separately, the resultingpolynomial expressions may then be used during a video teleconference tofacilitate a gnomonic transformation.

It will be appreciated that the methods described herein may be appliedin a number of sequences. The steps need not necessarily be performed inthe exact sequence given in the examples to achieve the describedresults.

It will be further appreciated that the methods and apparatusesdescribed herein may be used in a variety of situations calling forsecuring teleconferencing, such as, but not limited to: observation ofnursing facilities, holding cells, laboratories, or zoological exhibits;e-sitting, baby-sitting, or home nursing observation; clinicalinterventions in the home; psychiatric observation; and emergencyclinical interventions.

It is understood that any or all of the systems, methods and processesdescribed herein may be embodied in the form of computer executableinstructions (i.e., program code) stored on a computer-readable storagemedium which instructions, when executed by a machine, such as anapparatus of a digital protocol network, including for example a secureterminal, a server, gateway, mobile device or the like, perform and/orimplement the systems, methods and processes described herein.Specifically, any of the steps, operations or functions described abovemay be implemented in the form of such computer executable instructions.Computer readable storage media include both volatile and nonvolatile,removable and non-removable media implemented in any non-transitory(i.e., tangible or physical) method or technology for storage ofinformation, but such computer readable storage media do not includessignals. Computer readable storage media include, but are not limitedto, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM,digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magneticcassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magneticstorage devices, or any other tangible or physical medium which may beused to store the desired information and which may be accessed by acomputer.

We claim:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving, from a clinicianapplication, a first request, the first request comprising an indicationto initiate a teleconference and an indication of a treatment room;identifying a virtual meeting room for the teleconference; sending, tothe treatment room, an identifier of the virtual meeting room;receiving, from the treatment room, a second request, the second requestcomprising an indication to join the teleconference in the virtualmeeting room; joining the treatment room to the teleconference in thevirtual meeting room; and joining the clinician application to theteleconference in the virtual meeting room.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising: authenticating a clinician, the clinician using theclinician application.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:maintaining a pool of unused virtual meeting rooms; selecting thevirtual meeting room from the pool of unused virtual meeting rooms; andremoving, upon termination of the teleconference, the virtual meetingroom from the pool of unused virtual meeting rooms.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising upon termination of the teleconference,deleting the virtual meeting room.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving a switch input indicating a third request, thethird request comprising an intention in the treatment room to initiatethe teleconference; encoding and sending, to a remote call managementcenter, a first digital message, the first digital message comprising anidentifier of the treatment room.
 6. The method of claim 5, furthercomprising: encoding and sending, to a nurse station associated with thetreatment room, a second digital message, the second digital messagecomprising an identifier of the treatment room.
 7. The method of claim5, further comprising: authenticating the clinician; sending, to theclinician application, an indication of the third request comprising theidentifier of the treatment room.
 8. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving, from the clinician application, a selection of atarget area for enlargement within a two-dimensional teleconferenceimage; determining a three-dimensional coordinate of the selected targetarea; sending, the treatment room, a set of camera instructions based onthe three dimensional coordinate.
 9. The method of claim 8, whereindetermining the three dimensional coordinate of the selected target areais achieved via an inverse gnomonic transformation of one or more X,Ycoordinates of the selected target area.
 10. The method of claim 9,further comprising determining one or more X,Y coordinates of theselected target area by detecting a user holding a mouse click at apoint on the two-dimensional teleconference image.
 11. The method ofclaim 9, wherein the set of camera instructions comprises changes to azoom level of the camera.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the set ofcamera instructions is sent out of band of the teleconference.
 13. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the set of camera instructions is sent bythe clinician application out of band of the teleconference.
 14. Themethod of claim 9, wherein the set of camera instructions comprises arate at which to change a pan, a tilt, or a zoom.
 15. An apparatuscomprising a processor, a memory, a camera, a microphone, a speaker, andcommunication circuitry, the apparatus being connected to acommunications network via its communication circuitry, the apparatusfurther comprising computer-executable instructions stored in the memoryof the apparatus which, when executed by the processor of the apparatus,cause the apparatus to: not allow any incoming conference calls;receive, from a call management center, a first request, the firstrequest comprising an indication to join a teleconference, theteleconference comprising audio and video components; authenticate thecall management center; and join the teleconference by initiating aconnection to the teleconference.
 16. The apparatus of claim 15, furthercomprising an encoder, the encoder being adapted to: receive a switchinput indicating an intention to initiate the teleconference; encode adigital message, the digital message indicating receipt of the switchinput; send, to the call management center, the digital message.
 17. Theapparatus of claim 16, further comprising a video display, wherein theinstructions further cause the video display to bear a messageindicating when observation via the camera is underway.
 18. Theapparatus of claim 16, further comprising an infrared lamp, wherein thecamera is adapted to sense infrared light to support low lightobservation.
 19. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising a videodisplay, wherein the instructions further cause the apparatus to receivea set of camera instructions comprising a pan, a tilt, or a zoom, theset of camera instructions further comprising at rate at which to changethe pan, the tilt, or the zoom.
 20. The apparatus of claim 19, whereinthe instructions further cause the apparatus to receive the of camerainstructions out of band of the teleconference.
 21. The apparatus ofclaim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the apparatus to jointhe teleconference using one-time-only use identifiers provided by thecall management center.